What direction will Christopher Nolan take this time with the caped crusader? How will things end for Batman? Will we see him again? Some of these questions will come to light on July 20 with the opening of “The Dark Knight Rises.”

“Who knows what the future will bring,” said Michael Uslan, executive producer of the Batman franchise of motion pictures. This is the man who took the Pop! Wham! Dork! Batman character that TV audiences had come to know (and joke about) and restored it to its identity as a darkly serious creature of the night, stalking criminals from the shadows.

“It’s certainly the completion of the Christopher Nolan trilogy,” Uslan said in a telephone interview from his New Jersey home.

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Nolan’s first direction of the Christian Bale Batman that younger generations have come to know and emulate was “Batman Begins,” followed by “The Dark Knight” which is the second highest grossing films of all time. Nolan’s ensemble of Bale, Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), Gary Oldman (Jim Gordon) and Michael Caine (Alfred) is together again, joined this time by Marion Cotillard (Miranda Tate), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (John Blake), and Anne Hathaway (Selina Kyle/Catwoman).

Also in the cast is Tom Hardy, who plays this story’s villain Bane, a terrorist leader intent on destroying Gotham’s finest forcing the return of the Dark Knight, eight years after taking the fall for Two Face’s crimes. It’s a tough role, not just because his character speaks through a muzzle but because he’s the new villain. Still fresh in everyone’s mind (and nightmares) is Batman’s last enemy, played by the late Heath Ledger, whose lunatic performance as Joker earned him an Academy Award.

“His casting is so genius, and unexpected,” Uslan said. Prior to “Dark Knight” Heath Ledger would not have been on most directors’ radar, let alone a choice for Joker. “(Yet)... it was a performance of a lifetime,” Uslan said.

Ledger’s dark and serious interpretation of the Joker was so real, it was terrifying. Gary Oldman is another example of Nolan’s ability to see what others cannot. “(Oldman) has always been known in the industry as the altering chameleon, and for him to be the perfect human element, is incredible,” Uslan said.

For the generation that grew up in the 1960’s, Gordon’s character was a silver-haired senior citizen, who panicked at every turn. In Nolan’s trilogy, he is noble and strong, Gotham’s most incorruptible cop, who takes on villains whether Batman has his back or not. Uslan credits Nolan for creating such great characters onscreen, yet it is really his vision audiences are seeing.

“When I bought the film rights to Batman in 1979, no one wanted to make a Batman movie, well, not a good one, anyway,” said Uslan, in a report released to the press. “First, the president of DC Comics tried to convince me not to buy the film rights. He told me that no one wanted to make a Batman movie, but I made the deal anyway.”

As discouraging as it was for Uslan, the guy was right. For 10 years, Uslan banged on doors in Hollywood, pitching the idea of restoring Batman’s image. “I was rejected by every studio in town, multiple times, before I was able to convince people that Batman would be viable as a serious interpretation and not as a comedy,” said Uslan. He attended Comic Con-like events when they were held in fleabag hotels rather than posh arenas and shares the angst of his quest in the newly released memoir, “The Boy Who Loved Batman” (Chronicle Books). “What we proved with the Dark Knight was that we could use comic book-based material to transcend the genre and simply make a good movie, period.”

Could Batman earn an Oscar?

Maybe, but more important to Uslan is what Batman means to the world.

This includes young people like the students at West Point, who named the Dark Knight as the character that most represents the honor of cadets. Upon accepting the award Uslan told the young men and women headed off to fight real villains, “You are Batman!” And to this they replied in unison, “I am Batman.”

The Dark Knight Rises,” opening July 20, is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language.